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Rising as Fast as Her Feet Will Take Her

The presumptive “next face of women’s soccer” in the United States played recreational ball until she was 14, posed in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue at 22 and responds just as kindly when people call her Baby Horse as she does when people call her Alex.

Yes, there are already famous players on the United States women’s soccer team. The team’s captain, Christie Rampone, has been a fixture for almost 15 years; the headstrong forward Abby Wambach has at least made inroads on the mainstream sports fan’s psyche; and goalkeeper Hope Solo was on “Dancing with the Stars.”

But Alex Morgan is different. When the United States played China in an exhibition match outside Philadelphia this spring, the ovation for Morgan was the loudest and the longest, as it almost always was during the run-up to the London Olympics. Only a year after becoming a fixture on the senior national team, Morgan, 23, has become its undisputed centerpiece.

The reasons, observers say, are obvious. In a sports society fixated on points and runs and goals, Morgan has a prolific scoring touch, with her 17 goals for the national team this year already pushing her career total to 27 in only 42 games. In addition, she also has a television-ready face, a vibrant personality, a touch of flair (she wears a pink headband copied by countless teenagers) and, perhaps most important, a willingness to accept gracefully the perpetual and unfair-but-irresistible question: Is Alex Morgan the next Mia Hamm?

United States Soccer Federation officials understandably shy from the comparison. U.S. Soccer’s president, Sunil Gulati, saw what Hamm did in the 1990s and early 2000s, when she helped bring a sport that existed — at best — on the fringes of America’s consciousness to a place much closer to its athletic center. When Gatorade put Hamm, who scored 158 international goals and won two World Cups and two Olympic gold medals, in a commercial with Michael Jordan, Gulati recalled, that said something.

“We’re at a different place now,” Gulati said in a telephone interview. “I think Alex certainly has the potential to become the face of American women’s soccer, but it’s very early in her career and what that means — being the face — is very different.”

Still, the spike in Morgan’s popularity has been staggering. Consider her social media surge: Before the women’s World Cup last summer, Morgan had approximately 15,000 followers on Twitter. After scoring her first World Cup goal in the Americans’ semifinal victory over France, she moved closer to 30,000.

Then, after scoring the first goal in the final against Japan (and assisting on a goal by Wambach), she was stunned to see she had about 150,000 followers. A year later, she has more than 500,000.

“It just seemed like everyone was watching,” Morgan said in an interview this spring. “After the World Cup it was like a whirlwind. It was definitely uncomfortable for me at first just knowing that people on the streets kind of recognized you now.”

Growing up in Diamond Bar, Calif., Morgan did not imagine reaching that kind celebrity. Early on, her most competitive encounters involved games — gin rummy, Monopoly — with her father, Mike, or impromptu track meets with her older sisters, Jeni and Jeri. Alex Morgan can still recall, with great detail, the first time she beat Jeri in a race at the school across the street from their house.

“I was 9 and she was like 13, and she would always, always beat me,” Morgan said. “She was rubbing it in my face, too, ‘I’m going to beat you, you’ve got no chance,’ all of that.”

Sitting on a couch in a Princeton, N.J., hotel lounge, Morgan’s face brightened at the memory. “I totally killed her,” she said. “I was so excited. She probably still claims to this day that she’s faster than me, but it’s a false statement. Very false.”

Morgan’s sports world at home revolved primarily around softball. She played soccer, too, but mostly as an off-season diversion, the same way she played basketball or volleyball or ran track. While most soccer prodigies join an elite club team well before they become teenagers, Morgan stayed with her local American Youth Soccer Organization team until she was 14.

It was only when she realized how far ahead of the other players she was that she moved to a more competitive situation. In truth, she said, it just wasn’t a priority for her. “It was just a comfort level,” she said. “All my friends played, I was on the same team with them, and I wasn’t ready to commit to one sport. It was just easier to stay put.”

Photo

Alex Morgan has a scoring touch, a television-ready face and a vibrant personality.Credit
George Frey/Getty Images

Once she recognized her soccer ability, though, her rise was startling. Morgan went from the A.Y.S.O. to a club team to college at the University of California, where she scored 45 goals, the third-most in team history.

In 2008, after her freshman year at Cal, Morgan woke up early in the mornings with other soccer fans to watch the United States women’s team play in the Beijing Olympics, but she said she never seriously considered the possibility she would be part of the team four years later. After a strong showing with the United States under-20 team earlier that year, however, her standing in the national program shot up and she made her senior debut in 2010.

It was a heady surge, to be sure, and yet few could have predicted what happened after last July’s World Cup in Germany. From a marketing standpoint, it had been the perfect storm of circumstances: a slow summer sports period with little television competition for the United States team; ESPN’s recent investment in world soccer, which ratcheted up the channel’s coverage; a far-reaching, emotional story on the other side of the field, as the Japanese team played only months after its country was ravaged by an earthquake and tsunami; and Morgan, in the middle of it all, providing one dramatic goal after another off the bench.

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From that standpoint, it almost did not matter that the United States lost to Japan on penalty kicks in the final. Morgan’s agent, Dan Levy, described his cellphone’s voice mail as “epically overloaded” the day after the final, and Morgan shook her head as she recounted visiting nine cities in the 10 days after the tournament ended. There were countless media appearances, a game with her club team in upstate New York and, at one point, a memorable guerrilla shopping expedition after she received a last-minute invitation to that season’s “Entourage” premiere in New York.

“I had like an hour to get ready,” she said. “I had to get a dress, I had to get heels. I had nothing. So I went to Saks. But even there, for a girl to find a dress and shoes and get ready that fast? That’s not easy.”

As it turned out, that was only the beginning. Morgan’s public persona grew exponentially earlier this year, when she posed — wearing only body paint — for Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue. She said her parents supported her choice and that feedback from fans was mostly positive.

The few critiques she heard, she added, helped her realize the suddenly necessary importance of owning her own decisions. “It has made me realize I have to be sure of who I am and comfortable with that,” she said. “I also know that all of this, everything, starts with how I play.”

Ultimately, that is where Morgan always returns. Last summer, she was a bench player for United States Coach Pia Sundhage, a so-called super sub who was generally brought on late in games and given one job: chase the defenders, and push, push, push for goals.

Now, Morgan is a starter, which presents a different set of responsibilities. Her nickname came from her status as the youngest player on the team last year and her trademark galloping gait, but as a 90-minute player even Baby Horse cannot run at full speed for an entire game.

So Morgan must pick her spots, and she and Wambach must forge a more fluid partnership in which the veteran’s skills complement the younger striker’s repertory. “We’re playing every day in practice,” Wambach said. “We’re playing day in and day out together, learning from each other, intrasquad scrimmages. We’re doing everything we can to prepare for the Olympics.”

It is not yet perfect, though, and there are still moments of uncertainty on the field for the pairing. But Wambach marvels at Morgan’s speed and confidence near the goal, and she has learned not to doubt Morgan’s finishing skills. During the spring exhibition against China, Rampone lofted a long pass from the back, and Morgan ran on to the ball before breaking in alone against the Chinese goalkeeper.

In the stands, the fans rose in anticipation of what might happen. On the field, Wambach had no doubt.

“She’s the Baby Horse,” Wambach said. “Before she even got in behind the defender on the third goal my hand was straight in the air. I knew she was going to score.”

While Morgan does not love her nickname — “It’s not the most appealing,” she said — she is reveling in her new role. As the Olympics have drawn closer and a potential rematch with Japan awaits, she has continually peppered Wambach with questions, hoping to do everything possible to build a relationship with Wambach as strong as the one Wambach had with her last famous strike partner: Hamm.

“That sets high expectations for me,” Morgan said of the inevitable comparisons. “Mia Hamm is Mia Hamm. But I do think that me and Abby have been playing really well together ever since I got on this team, and I’m just really excited to see what we can do next.”